Greta Garbo[a] (bornGreta Lovisa Gustafsson;[b] 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish and American[1] actress. She was a premier star during Hollywood'ssilent and earlygolden eras. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time, she is known for her melancholic and somber screen persona, her film portrayals oftragic characters, and her subtle and understated performances. In 1999, theAmerican Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on its list of thegreatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish filmThe Saga of Gösta Berling. Her performance caught the attention ofLouis B. Mayer, chief executive ofMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She stirred interest with her first American silent film,Torrent (1926). Garbo's performance inFlesh and the Devil (1926), her third movie in the United States, made her an international star.[2] In 1928, Garbo starred inA Woman of Affairs, which catapulted her to MGM's highest box-office star, surpassing the long-reigningLillian Gish. Other well-known Garbo films from the silent era areThe Mysterious Lady (1928),The Single Standard (1929), andThe Kiss (1929).
With Garbo's first sound film,Anna Christie (1930), MGM marketers enticed the public with the tagline "Garbo talks!" That same year she starred inRomance and for her performances in both films she received her first combined nomination out of three nominations for theAcademy Award for Best Actress.[3] By 1932 her success allowed her to dictate the terms of her contracts and she became increasingly selective about her roles. She continued in films such asMata Hari (1931),Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931),Grand Hotel (1932),Queen Christina (1933), andAnna Karenina (1935).
Many critics and film historians consider her performance as the doomed courtesanMarguerite Gautier inCamille (1936) to be her finest and the role gained her a third Academy Award nomination. However, Garbo's career soon declined and she became one of many stars labelledbox office poison in 1938. Her career revived with a turn to comedy inNinotchka (1939), which earned her a fourth Academy Award nomination.Two-Faced Woman (1941), abox-office flop, was the last of her 28 feature films. Following this commercial failure, she continued to be offered movie roles, though she declined most of them. Those she did accept failed to materialize, either due to lack of funds or because she dropped out during filming. In 1954, Garbo was awarded anAcademy Honorary Award "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances".[4]
Over time, Garbo would decline all opportunities to return to the screen. In her retirement, she shunned publicity, led a private life, and became an art collector whose paintings included works byPierre-Auguste Renoir,Pierre Bonnard andKees van Dongen.[5] Although she refused throughout her life to talk to friends about her reasons for retiring, four years before her death, she told Swedish biographer Sven Broman: "I was tired of Hollywood. I did not like my work. There were many days when I had to force myself to go to the studio ... I really wanted to live another life."[6]
Greta Lovisa Gustafsson[7] was born inSödermalm, Stockholm, Sweden at 7:30 p.m.[8] She was the third, and youngest, child of Anna Lovisa (née Karlsson, 1872–1944), who worked at a jam factory, and Karl Alfred Gustafsson (1871–1920), a laborer.[9][10] She had an older brother, Sven Alfred (1898–1967), and an older sister, Alva Maria (1903–1926).[11] Garbo was nicknamed Kata, which was how she had mispronounced her first name, for the first ten years of her life.[8]
Her parents met inStockholm, where her father had been visiting fromFrinnaryd. He moved to Stockholm to become independent and worked as a street cleaner, grocer, factory worker and butcher's assistant.[12] He married Anna, who moved fromHögsby.[13][14] The family was impoverished and lived in a three-bedroom cold-water flat at Blekingegatan No. 32. They raised their three children in a working-class district regarded as the city's slum.[15] Garbo later recalled:
It was eternally grey—those long winter's nights. My father would be sitting in a corner, scribbling figures on a newspaper. On the other side of the room, my mother is repairing ragged old clothes, sighing. We children would be talking in very low voices, or just sitting silently. We were filled with anxiety, as if there were danger in the air. Such evenings are unforgettable for a sensitive girl, but also for a girl like me. Where we lived, all the houses and apartments looked alike, their ugliness matched by everything surrounding us.[16]
Garbo was a shy daydreamer as a child.[17] She disliked school[18][19] and preferred to play alone.[20] She was a natural leader[21] who became interested in theatre at an early age.[22] She directed her friends in make-believe games and performances,[23] and dreamed of becoming an actress.[22][24] Later, she would participate in amateur theatre with her friends and frequent theMosebacke Theatre.[25] At the age of 13, Garbo graduated from school,[26] and, typical of a Swedish working-class girl at that time, she did not attend high school. She later acknowledged a resultinginferiority complex.[27]
The approved application by Greta's mother to allow her name change from Gustafsson to Garbo.
TheSpanish flu spread throughout Stockholm in the winter of 1919 and her father, to whom she was very close, became ill and lost his job.[28] Garbo cared for him, taking him to the hospital for weekly treatments. He died in 1920 when she was 14 years old.[14][29]
Garbo first worked as a soap-lather girl in a barber shop before taking a job in thePUB department store where she ran errands and worked in themillinery department. After modeling hats for the store's catalogues, Garbo earned a more lucrative job as a fashion model atNordiska Kompaniet.[30][31] In 1920, a director of film commercials for the store cast Garbo in roles advertising women's clothing. Her first commercial premiered on 12 December 1920[32] In 1922, Garbo caught the attention of directorErik A. Petschler, who gave her a part, credited as Greta Gustafson, in his short comedyPeter the Tramp, released asLuffar-Petter.[33][34][35][36]
From 1922 to 1924, she studied at theRoyal Dramatic Training Academy in Stockholm. She was recruited in 1924 by the Finnish directorMauritz Stiller to play a principal part in his filmThe Saga of Gösta Berling, a dramatization of thefamous novel byNobel Prize winnerSelma Lagerlöf, which also featured the actorLars Hanson. Stiller became her mentor, training her as a film actress and managing all aspects of her nascent career.[37] She followed her role inGösta Berling with a starring role in the German filmDie freudlose Gasse (Joyless Street orThe Street of Sorrow, 1925), directed byG. W. Pabst and co-starringAsta Nielsen.[38] She praised Asta and said: "In terms of expression and versatility, I am nothing to her."[39]
Accounts differ on the circumstances of her first contract withLouis B. Mayer, at that time vice president and general manager ofMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer.Victor Seastrom, a respected Swedish director at MGM, was a friend of Stiller and encouraged Mayer to meet him on a trip to Berlin. There are two recent versions of what happened next. In one,[40] Mayer, always looking for new talent, had done his research and was interested in Stiller. He made an offer, but Stiller demanded that Garbo be part of any contract, convinced that she would be an asset to his career. Mayer balked, but eventually agreed to a private viewing ofGösta Berling. He was immediately struck by Garbo's magnetism and became more interested in her than in Stiller. "It was her eyes," his daughter recalled him saying, "I can make a star out of her." In the second version,[41] Mayer had already seenGösta Berling before his Berlin trip, and Garbo, not Stiller, was his primary interest. On the way to the screening, Mayer said to his daughter: "This director is wonderful, but what we really ought to look at is the girl ... The girl, look at the girl!" After the screening, his daughter reported, he was unwavering: "I'll take her without him. I'll take herwith him. Number one is the girl."[42]
In 1925, Garbo, who was unable to speak English, was brought to Hollywood from Sweden at the request of Mayer. After a 10-day crossing on theSS Drottningholm[43] in July, Garbo and Stiller arrived in New York where they remained for more than six months without word from MGM. They decided to travel to Los Angeles on their own but another five weeks passed without contact from the studio.[44][45] On the verge of returning to Sweden, Garbo wrote her boyfriend back home, "You're quite right when you think I don't feel at home here ... Oh, you lovely little Sweden, I promise that when I return to you, my sad face will smile as never before."[46] A Swedish friend in Los Angeles helped by contacting MGM production bossIrving Thalberg, who agreed to give Garbo a screen test. According to author Frederick Sands, "the result of the test was electrifying. Thalberg was impressed and began grooming the young actress the following day, arranging to fix her teeth, making sure she lost weight and giving her English lessons."[46]
During her rise to stardom, film historian Mark Vieira notes, "Thalberg decreed that henceforth, Garbo would play a young, but worldly wise, woman."[47] However, according to Thalberg's actress wife,Norma Shearer, Garbo did not necessarily agree with his ideas stating "Miss Garbo at first didn't like playing the exotic, the sophisticated, the woman of the world. She used to complain, "Mr. Thalberg, I am just a young gur-rl!" Irving tossed it off with a laugh. With those elegant pictures, he was creating the Garbo image".[47] Although she expected to work with Stiller on her first film,[48] she was cast inTorrent (1926), an adaptation of a novel byVicente Blasco Ibáñez, with directorMonta Bell. She replacedAileen Pringle, 10 years her senior, and played a peasant girl turned singer, oppositeRicardo Cortez.[49][50]Torrent was a hit, and, despite its cool reception by the trade press,[51] Garbo's performance was well received.[52][53]
Garbo's success in her first American film led Thalberg to cast her in a similar role inThe Temptress (1926), based on another Ibáñez novel. In this, her second film, she played opposite the popular starAntonio Moreno[54] but was given top billing. Her mentor Stiller, who had persuaded her to take the part, was assigned to direct.[55] For both Garbo (who did not want to play another vamp and did not like the script any more than she did the first one)[56] and Stiller,The Temptress was a harrowing experience. Stiller, who spoke little English, had difficulty adapting to the studio system[57] and did not get on with Moreno,[58] was fired by Thalberg and replaced byFred Niblo. Re-shootingThe Temptress was expensive, and even though it became one of the top-grossing films of the 1926–1927 season,[59] it was the only Garbo film of the period to lose money.[60] However, Garbo received rave reviews,[61][62][63][64] and MGM had a new star.[59][65]
After her lightning ascent, Garbo made eight more silent films, and all were hits.[66] She starred in three of them with the leading manJohn Gilbert.[67] About their first movie,Flesh and the Devil (1926), silent film expertKevin Brownlow states that "she gave a more erotic performance than Hollywood had ever seen."[68] Their on-screen chemistry soon translated into an off-camera romance, and by the end of the production, they began living together.[69] The film also marked a turning point in Garbo's career. Vieira wrote: "Audiences were mesmerized by her beauty and titillated by her love scenes with Gilbert. She was a sensation."[70] Profits from her third movie with Gilbert,A Woman of Affairs (1928), catapulted her to top Metro star of the 1928–1929 box office season, usurping the long-reigned silent queenLillian Gish.[71] In 1929, reviewer Pierre de Rohan wrote in theNew York Telegraph: "She has glamour and fascination for both sexes which have never been equaled on the screen."[72]
The impact of Garbo's acting and screen presence quickly established her reputation as one of Hollywood's greatest actresses. Film historian and criticDavid Denby argues that Garbo introduced a subtlety of expression to the art of silent acting and that its effect on audiences cannot be exaggerated. She "lowers her head to look calculating or flutters her lips," he says. "Her face darkens with a slight tightening around the eyes and mouth; she registers a passing idea with a contraction of her brows or a drooping of her lids. Worlds turned on her movements."[73]
During this period, Garbo began to require unusual conditions during the shooting of her scenes. She prohibited visitors—including the studio brass—from her sets and demanded that black flats or screens surround her to prevent extras and technicians from watching her. When asked about these eccentric requirements, she said: "If I am by myself, my face will do things I cannot do with it otherwise."[74]
Despite her status as a star of silent films,[75] the studio feared that her Swedish accent might impair her work in sound, and delayed the shift for as long as possible.[76][77] MGM itself was the last Hollywood studio to convert to sound,[78] and Garbo's last silent film,The Kiss (1929), was also the studio's.[79] Despite the fears, Garbo became one of the biggest box-office draws of the next decade.
1930–1939: Transition to sound and continued success
In late 1929, MGM cast Garbo inAnna Christie (1930), a film adaptation of the1922 play byEugene O'Neill, her first speaking role. The screenplay was adapted byFrances Marion, and the film was produced byIrving Thalberg andPaul Bern. Sixteen minutes into the film, she famously utters her first line, "Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy, baby." The film premiered inNew York City on 21 February 1930, publicized with the catchphrase "Garbo talks!", and was the highest-grossing film of the year.[80] Her performance received positive reviews;Mordaunt Hall ofThe New York Times remarked that Garbo was "even more interesting through being heard than she was in her mute portrayals. She reveals no nervousness before the microphone and her careful interpretation of Anna can scarcely be disputed."[81] Garbo received her firstAcademy Award for Best Actress nomination for her performance, although she lost to MGM colleagueNorma Shearer. Her nomination that year included her performance inRomance (1930). After filming ended, Garbo—along with a different director and cast—filmed aGerman-language version ofAnna Christie that was released in December 1930.[82] The film's success certified Garbo's successful transition totalkies. In her follow-up film,Romance, she portrayed anItalian opera star, oppositeLewis Stone. She was paired oppositeRobert Montgomery inInspiration (1931), and her profile was used to boost the career of the relatively unknownClark Gable inSusan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931). Although the films did not match Garbo's success with her sound debut, she was ranked as the most popular female star in the United States in 1930 and 1931.
Garbo followed with two of her best-remembered roles. She played theWorld War I German spy in the lavish production ofMata Hari (1931), oppositeRamón Novarro. When the film was released, it "caused panic, with police reserves required to keep the waiting mob in order."[83] The following year, she played aRussian ballerina inGrand Hotel (1932), opposite an ensemble cast, includingJohn Barrymore,Joan Crawford, andWallace Beery, among others. The film won that year'sAcademy Award for Best Picture. Both films were MGM's highest-earning films of 1931 and 1932, respectively, and Garbo was dubbed "the greatest money-making machine ever put on screen".[29][84][85] Garbo's close friendMercedes de Acosta then penned a screenplay for her to portrayJoan of Arc,[86] but MGM rebuffed the idea, and the project was shelved. By this time she had a fanatical worldwide following and the phenomenon of "Garbomania" reached its peak.[87] After appearing inAs You Desire Me (1932), the first of three films in which Garbo starred oppositeMelvyn Douglas, her MGM contract expired, and she returned to Sweden.
InCamille (1936)
After nearly a year of negotiations, Garbo agreed to renew her contract with MGM on the condition that she would star inQueen Christina (1933), and her salary would be increased to $300,000 per film. The film's screenplay had been written bySalka Viertel; although reluctant to make the movie, MGM relented at Garbo's insistence. For her leading man, MGM suggestedCharles Boyer orLaurence Olivier, but Garbo rejected both, preferring her former co-star and loverJohn Gilbert. The studio balked at the idea of casting Gilbert, fearing his declining career would hurt the film's box-office, but Garbo prevailed.[88][89]Queen Christina was a lavish production, becoming one of the studio's biggest productions at the time. Publicized as "Garbo returns", the film premiered in December 1933 to positive reviews and box-office triumph and became the highest-grossing film of the year. The movie, however, met with controversy upon its release; censors objected to the scenes in which Garbo disguised herself as a man and kissed a female co-star.[90][91]
Although her domestic popularity was undiminished in the early 1930s, high profits for Garbo's films afterQueen Christina depended on the foreign market for their success.[90][91] The type of historical and melodramatic films she began to make on the advice of Viertel were highly successful abroad, but considerably less so in the United States. In the midst of theGreat Depression, American screen audiences seemed to favor "home-grown" screen couples, such asClark Gable andJean Harlow.David O. Selznick wanted to cast Garbo as the dying heiress inDark Victory (eventually released in 1939 with other leads), but she choseLeo Tolstoy'sAnna Karenina (1935), in which she played another of her renowned roles.[92] Her performance won her theNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. The film was successful in international markets, and had better domestic rentals than MGM anticipated.[93] Still, its profit was significantly diminished because of Garbo's exorbitant salary.[94]
Garbo selectedGeorge Cukor's romantic dramaCamille (1936) as her next project. Thalberg cast her oppositeRobert Taylor and former co-star,Lionel Barrymore. Cukor carefully crafted Garbo's portrayal of Marguerite Gautier, a lower-class woman, who becomes the world-renowned mistress Camille. Production was marred, however, by the sudden death of Thalberg, then only thirty-seven, which plunged the Hollywood studios into a "state of profound shock", writesDavid Bret.[95]: 272 Garbo had grown close to Thalberg and his wife,Norma Shearer, and had often dropped by their house unannounced. Her grief for Thalberg, some believe, was more profound than forJohn Gilbert, who died earlier that same year.[95]: 272 His death also added to the sombre mood required for the closing scenes ofCamille. When the film premiered in New York on 12 December 1936, it became an international success, Garbo's first major success in three years. She won theNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for her performance, and she was nominated once more for an Academy Award. Garbo regardedCamille as her favorite out of all of her films.[96]
After the box-office failure ofConquest, MGM decided a change of pace was needed to resurrect Garbo's career. For her next movie, the studio teamed her with producer-directorErnst Lubitsch to filmNinotchka (1939), her first comedy. The film was one of the first Hollywood movies which, under the cover of a satirical, light romance, depicted theSoviet Union underJoseph Stalin as being rigid and gray when compared to Paris in its pre-war years.Ninotchka premiered in October 1939, publicized with the catchphrase "Garbo laughs!", commenting on the departure of Garbo's serious and melancholy image as she transferred to comedy. Favoured by critics and box-office success in the United States and abroad, it was banned in the Soviet Union.
With George Cukor'sTwo-Faced Woman (1941), MGM attempted to capitalize on Garbo's success inNinotchka by re-teaming her with Melvyn Douglas in another romantic comedy which sought to transform her into a chic, modern woman. She played a "double" role that featured her dancing therhumba, swimming, and skiing. The film was a critical failure, but, contrary to popular belief, it performed reasonably well at the box office.[97] Garbo referred to the film as "my grave".[98]Two-Faced Woman was her last film; she was thirty-six and had made 28 feature films in a span of 16 years.
Although Garbo felt humiliated by the negative reviews ofTwo-Faced Woman, she did not intend to retire at first.[99] But her films depended on the European market, and when it fell through because of the war, finding a vehicle was problematic for MGM.[100][101] Garbo signed a one-picture deal in 1942 to makeThe Girl from Leningrad, but the project quickly dissolved.[100] She still thought she would continue when the war was over,[100][102] though she was ambivalent and indecisive about returning to the screen.Salka Viertel, Garbo's close friend and collaborator, said in 1945: "Greta is impatient to work. But on the other side, she's afraid of it."[103] Garbo also worried about her age. "Time leaves traces on our small faces and bodies. It's not the same anymore, being able to pull it off."[103] George Cukor, director ofTwo-Faced Woman, and often blamed for its failure, said: "People often glibly say that the failure ofTwo-Faced Woman finished Garbo's career. That's a grotesque over-simplification. It certainly threw her, but I think that what really happened was that she just gave up. She didn't want to go on."[102]
Still, Garbo signed a contract in 1948 with producerWalter Wanger, who had producedQueen Christina, to shoot a picture based onBalzac'sLa Duchesse de Langeais.Max Ophüls was slated to adapt and direct.[104][105][106] She made severalscreen tests, learned the script, and arrived in Rome in the summer of 1949 to shoot the picture. However, the financing failed to materialize, and the project was abandoned.[107] The screen tests—the last time Garbo stepped in front of a movie camera—were thought to have been lost for 41 years until they were re-discovered in 1990 by film historiansLeonard Maltin andJeanine Basinger.[108] Parts of the footage were included in the 2005TCM documentaryGarbo.[109]
In 1949, she was offered the role of fictional silent-film star Norma Desmond inSunset Boulevard, directed byNinotchka co-writerBilly Wilder. However, after a meeting with film producerCharles Brackett, she insisted that she had no interest in the part whatsoever.[110]
She was offered many roles both in the 1940s and throughout her retirement years but rejected all but a few of them. In the few instances when she did accept them, the slightest problem led her to drop out.[111] Although she refused throughout her life to talk to friends about her reasons for retiring, four years before her death, she told Swedish biographer Sven Broman: "I was tired of Hollywood. I did not like my work. There were many days when I had to force myself to go to the studio ... I really wanted to live another life."[6]
Garbo inGrand Hotel (1932), in which she said the famous line "I want to be alone." The public would long associate her with these words due to her private lifestyle.
From the early days of her career, Garbo avoided industry social functions, preferring to spend her time alone or with friends. She never signed autographs or answered fan mail, and rarely gave interviews.[112][113] Nor did she ever appear at Oscar ceremonies, even when she was nominated.[114] Her aversion to publicity and the press was undeniably genuine,[115][116] and exasperating to the studio at first. In an interview in 1928, she explained that her desire for privacy began when she was a child, stating, "As early as I can remember, I have wanted to be alone. I've always been moody. I detest crowds, I don't like many people."[117][118] The artistJames Montgomery Flagg said in 1933[119] that when he was allowed to sketch Garbo at a director's party in Hollywood some years earlier she told him she suffered from melancholia. At that time she had a Swedish phonograph record of laughs of all kinds which she played when visiting, to observe her hosts' response.[120] In 1937, in a letter to her friend, Austrian actress and writerSalka Viertel, she wrote: "I go nowhere, see no one... It is hard and sad to be alone, but sometimes it's even more difficult to be with someone..."[121] In another letter in 1970 she wrote: "I feel very tired and cannot seem to get myself together to plan where to go... I am sorry but something always seem to go a little wrong with me, and it is not in my head either..."[122]
Because Garbo was suspicious and mistrustful of the media, and often at odds with MGM executives, she spurned Hollywood's publicity rules. She was routinely referred to by the press as the "Swedish Sphinx". Her reticence and fear of strangers perpetuated the mystery and mystique she projected both on screen and in real life. MGM eventually capitalized on it, for it bolstered the image of the silent and reclusive woman of mystery.[123][114][124] In spite of her strenuous efforts to avoid publicity, Garbo paradoxically became one of the twentieth century's most publicized women.[29][125] She is closely associated with a line fromGrand Hotel, one which theAmerican Film Institute in 2005 voted the30th-most memorable movie quote of all time,[126] "I want to be alone; I just want to be alone." The theme was a running gag in her movies that began during the silent period.[127][c] According to a 1955 piece inLIFE magazine, Garbo explained that she'd said: "I want to belet alone", not "I want to be alone".[129][130][131]
After starring inTorrent (1926), she became known as "theArt DecoDiva".[118] She favored men's shoes and clothes[132] and her style has been described as "trench coat, simple shoes, shirts,cigarette pants,slouch hat and big sunglasses."[118] Garbo has been credited with popularizing the "slouchy hat".[133]
In her retirement, Garbo generally led a private life of simplicity and leisure. She made no public appearances and assiduously avoided the publicity she loathed.[134] Contrary to myth, from the beginning she had many friends and acquaintances with whom she socialized and travelled,[135][136] although it has also been said that in later years she did not trust many people and therefore did not have many close friends. Her usual response to anyone asking her about a comeback was "I have made enough faces", as she once said toDavid Niven.[137]
Garbo was often perplexed about what to do and how to spend her time, always struggling with her many eccentricities[136][138] and her life-long melancholy and moodiness.[139][140] ("Drifting" was the word she frequently used; in 1946 she told reporters, "I have no plans, either for the movies or anything else. I'm just drifting."[141]) As she approached her sixtieth birthday in 1965, she told a frequent walking companion, "In a few days, it will be the anniversary of the sorrow that never leaves me, that will never leave me for the rest of my life."[142] She told another friend in 1971, "I suppose I suffer from very deepdepression."[143] One biographer claims that she could have beenbipolar. "I am very happy one moment, the next there is nothing left for me", she said in 1933.[143]
Beginning in the 1940s, Garbo became an art collector. Although many of the paintings she owned were of negligible monetary value, she also owned valuable works byRenoir,Rouault,Kandinsky,Bonnard[144] andJawlensky.[145] Her art collection was worth millions of dollars when she died in 1990.[146]
Garbo signing her US citizenship papers in February 1951
On 9 February 1951, she became anaturalized citizen of the United States,[147][1] and bought a seven-room apartment at 450 East 52nd Street inManhattan in 1953,[148] where she lived for the rest of her life.[147] Her New York apartment buzzer was identified by a solitary G and the interior was a "light and airy study in pink".[137] In order to protect her privacy, she preferred being addressed as "Miss [Harriet] Brown".[132] Her close friends were only allowed to call her Miss Garbo or G.G.; if they called her Greta, she wouldn't respond.[149]
Garbo was a dinner guest at theWhite House on 13 November 1963, just nine days before theassassination of JFK.[150] She spent the night at the Washington, D.C. home of philanthropist[151] Florence Stephenson Mahoney.[152][153] Garbo's niece reported that Garbo had always spoken of it as a "magical evening".[154]
Italian film directorLuchino Visconti allegedly attempted to bring Garbo back to the screen in 1969 with the small part ofMaria Sophia, Queen of Naples in his adaptation ofProust'sRemembrance of Things Past. He exclaimed: "I am very pleased with the idea that this woman, with her severe and authoritarian presence, should figure in the decadent and rarefied climate of the world described by Proust."[155] Claims that Garbo was interested in the part cannot be substantiated.[156][155]
Garbo in Stockholm in 1961
In 1971, Garbo vacationed in Southern France at the summer home of her close friend Baroness Cécilede Rothschild[157] who introduced her toSamuel Adams Green, an art collector and curator in New York City.[158] Green became an important friend and walking companion. He was in the habit of tape-recording all of his telephone calls, including many of his conversations with Garbo. He did so with her permission, but Garbo ended the friendship in 1981 after being falsely told that Green had played the tapes to friends.[159] In his last will and testament, Green bequeathed all of the tapes in 2011 to the film archives atWesleyan University.[160] The tapes reveal Garbo's personality in later life, her sense of humor, and various eccentricities. In 1977, Garbo wrote to Frederick Sands: "I am forever running away from something or somebody"... "Unconsciously I have always known that I was not destined for real and lasting happiness."[137]
Although she was increasingly withdrawn in her final years,[161] Garbo became close to her cook and housekeeper Claire Koger, who worked for her for 31 years. "We were very close—like sisters," Koger said.[162]
Throughout her life, Garbo was known for taking long daily walks with companions or by herself. In retirement, she walked the streets of New York City, dressed casually and wearing large sunglasses. "Garbo-watching" became a sport for photographers, the media, admirers, and curious New Yorkers,[163] but she strictly maintained her privacy and her elusive mystique followed her to the end.
Norwegian actressLiv Ullmann, who was dubbed "The New Greta Garbo",[164] and playedAnna Christie onBroadway in 1977,[165] saw Garbo in the street and ran after her, in hopes of meeting her and telling her she was playing Anna Christie. Garbo ran away from her and disappeared intoCentral Park. Ullmann gave up the chase after she saw that Garbo looked "frightened". She said: "Yes, she outpaced me. But when she turned and looked so frightened I gave up and didn't follow her. I was younger; I could have made it, but I didn't."[166]
Garbo never married, had no children, and lived alone for most of her adult life. Her most famous romance was with her frequent MGM co-starJohn Gilbert, with whom she lived intermittently in 1926 and 1927.[167] Soon after their romance began, Gilbert began helping her develop acting skills on the set and teaching her how to behave like a star, socialize at parties, and deal with studio bosses.[168] They co-starred again in three more hits:Love (1927),A Woman of Affairs (1928), andQueen Christina (1933). Gilbert allegedly proposed to Garbo numerous times and she finally accepted, but backed out just before the wedding.[168][2][169] "I was in love with him," she said. "But I froze. I was afraid he would tell me what to do and boss me. I always wanted to be the boss." In later years when asked about Gilbert, Garbo said "I can't remember what I ever saw in him."[168] According toAva Gardner's autobiography, Garbo admitted to her that Gilbert was the only man she'd ever really loved but he had "let [her] down" by having a "superstitious affair" with "a little extra" during their last film and she had never forgiven him.[170]
In 1937, Garbo metLeopold Stokowski, then conductor of thePhiladelphia Orchestra, with whom she had a brief, but highly publicized relationship while the pair traveled throughout Europe the following year; whether the relationship was romantic or platonic is uncertain.[171][172] In his diary,Erich Maria Remarque discusses a liaison with Garbo in 1941,[173] and in his memoir,Cecil Beaton described an affair with her in 1947 and 1948.[174][175] In 1941, she met the Russian-born millionaire George Schlee, who was introduced to her by his wife, fashion designerValentina. Nicholas Turner, Garbo's close friend for 33 years, said that, after she bought an apartment in the same building, "Garbo moved in and took Schlee from Valentina right away."[168] Schlee would divide his time between the two, becoming Garbo's close companion and advisor until his death in 1964.[176][177]
Garbo once said: "If I were ever to love anyone, it would beMauritz Stiller."[178]
Recent biographers and others have speculated that because it can be assumed she had intimate relationships with women as well as men, Garbo wasbisexual, possibly even "predominantlylesbian".[d] In 1927, Garbo was introduced to stage and screen actressLilyan Tashman, and they may have had an affair, according to some writers.[185][186] Silent film starLouise Brooks stated that she and Garbo had a brief liaison the following year.[187]
In 1931, Garbo befriended the writer and acknowledged lesbianMercedes de Acosta, whom she met throughSalka Viertel, and, according to Garbo's and de Acosta's biographers, began a sporadic and volatile romance.[188][189]The two remained friends—with ups and downs—for almost 30 years, during which time Garbo wrote de Acosta 181 letters, cards, and telegrams, now at theRosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia.[190][191] Garbo's family, which controls her estate,[192] has made only 87 of these items publicly available.[193]
In 2005,Mimi Pollak's estate released 60 letters Garbo had written to her in their long correspondence. Several letters suggest she may have had romantic feelings for Pollak for many years. After learning of Pollak's pregnancy in 1930, for example, Garbo wrote: "We cannot help our nature, as God has created it. But I have always thought you and I belonged together."[194] In 1975, she wrote a poem about not being able to touch the hand of her friend with whom she might have been walking through life.[195]
Garbo was successfully treated forbreast cancer in 1984.[196][197] Towards the end of her life, only Garbo's closest friends knew she was receiving six-hourdialysis treatments three times a week atThe Rogosin Institute inNew York Hospital. A photograph appeared in the media in early 1990, showing Koger assisting Garbo, who was walking with a cane, into the hospital.
Garbo wascremated and her ashes were interred nine years later in 1999 atSkogskyrkogården Cemetery just south of her native Stockholm.[199]
Garbo made numerous investments, primarily in stocks and bonds, and left her entire estate of $32million (equivalent to $77,000,000 in 2024) to her niece.[200]
Garbo was an international movie star during the late silent era and the "Golden Age" of Hollywood who became a screen icon.[201]
[202] For most of her career, Garbo was the highest-paid star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, making her for many years the studio's "premier prestige star".[203][204] After her death, theLos Angeles Times published an obituary calling her "the most alluring, vibrant and yet aloof character to grace the motion-picture screen."[205] The April 1990Washington Post obituary said that "at the peak of her popularity, she was a virtual cult figure."[125]
Garbo possessed a subtlety and naturalism in her acting that set her apart from other actors and actresses of the period.[206] About her work in silents, film criticTy Burr said: "This was a new kind of actor—not the stage actor who had to play to the far seats, but someone who could just look and with her eyes literally go from rage to sorrow in just a close-up."[207]
Film historianJeffrey Vance said that Garbo communicated her characters' innermost feelings through her movement, gestures, and, most importantly, her eyes. With the slightest movement of them, he argues, she subtly conveyed complex attitudes and feelings toward other characters and the truth of the situation. "She doesn't act," saidCamille co-starRex O'Malley, "she lives her roles."[208]Clarence Brown, who directed seven of Garbo's pictures, told an interviewer, "Garbo has something behind the eyes that you couldn't see until you photographed it in close-up. You could see thought. If she had to look at one person with jealousy, and another with love, she didn't have to change her expression. You could see it in her eyes as she looked from one to the other. And nobody else has been able to do that on screen."[209] DirectorGeorge Sidney adds: "You could call it underplaying, but in underplaying, she overplayed everyone else."[210]
Many critics have said that few of Garbo's 24 Hollywood films are artistically exceptional, and that many are simply bad.[211] It has been said, however, that her commanding and magnetic performances usually overcome the weaknesses of plot and dialogue.[211][125] As one biographer put it, "All moviegoers demanded of a Garbo production was Greta Garbo."[212]
Film historianEphraim Katz: "Of all the stars who have ever fired the imaginations of audiences, none has quite projected a magnetism and a mystique equal to Garbo. 'The Divine', the 'dream princess of eternity', the 'Sarah Bernhardt of films', are only a few of the superlatives writers used in describing her over the years ... She played heroines that were at once sensual and pure, superficial and profound, suffering and hopeful, world-weary and life-inspiring."[213]
American film actressBette Davis: "Her instinct, her mastery over the machine, was pure witchcraft. I cannot analyze this woman's acting. I only know that no one else so effectively worked in front of a camera."[214]
Mexican film actressDolores del Río: "The most extraordinary woman (in art) that I have encountered in my life. It was as if she had diamonds in her bones and in her interior light struggled to come out through the pores of her skin."[215]
American film directorGeorge Cukor: "She had a talent that few actresses or actors possess. In close-ups, she gave the impression, the illusion of great movement. She would move her head just a little bit, and the whole screen would come alive, like a strong breeze that made itself felt."[216]
American film actorGregory Peck: "If you ask me my favorite actress of all time, I will tell you that it is Greta Garbo. She shared her emotions with the camera and the audience. They were very truthful emotions. To my mind, she was an early practitioner of the Method. She felt everything she did and had the intelligence to go with it. ... And that is the key for the audience. If they believe it, then they've spent a couple of good hours at the cinema."[217]
American film actressKim Novak: "You know, my idol, I idolize Greta Garbo. I just loved her work so much. She was, again, so real. She was not -- to me, she wasn't stylized. You could see any of her work right now. She was just amazing, and what I loved about it also was there was an air of mystery about her work. There was always something more. She didn't give you everything. She held back, and I like that. I probably -- she was my role model."[218]
Garbo has been memorialized in art and literature both during and after her life. Garbo was one of the subjects of French composerCharles Koechlin's "Seven Stars Symphony" (1933), which consisted of sevenmovements, each dedicated to a Hollywood star.[224]
AuthorErnest Hemingway provided an imaginary portrayal of Garbo in his novelFor Whom the Bell Tolls (1940): "Maybe it is like the dreams you have when someone you have seen in the cinema comes to your bed at night and is so kind and lovely ... He could remember Garbo still ... Maybe it was like those dreams the night before the attack onPozoblanco, and [Garbo] was wearing a soft silky wool sweater when he put his arms around her, and when she leaned forward, and her hair swept forward and over his face, and she said why had he never told her that he loved her when she had loved him all this time? ... and it was as true as though it had happened ..."[225]
Garbo was portrayed byBetty Comden in the filmGarbo Talks (1984). The plot concerns a dying Garbo fan (Anne Bancroft) whose last wish is to meet her idol. Her son (played byRon Silver) diligently searches for the elusive Garbo, determined to fulfill his mother's wish.
A statue of Greta Garbo titled "Statue of Integrity" by Jón Leifsson sits isolated deep in the forest inHärjedalen.[226]
The Cole Porter song "You're the Top" makes a passing reference to the importance of her salary. Garbo is mentioned inThe Kinks' 1972 song "Celluloid Heroes" and the 1977 song "Right Before Your Eyes" byIan Thomas, which was covered byAmerica in 1982. Greta Garbo is mentioned in the 1981Kim Carnes hit song "Bette Davis Eyes" and she was the subject of the 1985Freddie Mercury song, "Living On My Own". The 1988 song, "Garbo" by Austrian musicianFalco serves as a tribute in the form of a love song. In the 1990 song "Vogue" byMadonna, Greta Garbo is the first mentioned of a list of stars from Hollywood'sGolden Age. Greta Garbo is also the namesake of and mentioned in the song "Garbo" byStevie Nicks.
Pornographic film directorPeter de Rome shot footage of Garbo walking acrossFirst Avenue that he inserted into his 1974 featureAdam & Yves. Its presence was explained by having one of the characters recalling how he once saw the elusive star.[228][229] The Garbo footage was used without the star's knowledge or permission, and she was not paid for her appearance.[230]
Garbo was nominated four times for theAcademy Award for Best Actress. In 1930, a performer could receive a single nomination for their work in more than one film. Garbo received her nomination for her work in bothAnna Christie and forRomance.[231][232]She lost out toIrving Thalberg's wife,Norma Shearer, who won forThe Divorcee. In 1937, Garbo was nominated forCamille, butLuise Rainer won forThe Good Earth. Finally, in 1939, Garbo was nominated forNinotchka, but again came away empty-handed.Gone With the Wind swept the major awards, including Best Actress, which went toVivien Leigh.[233][234] In 1954, however, she was awarded anAcademy Honorary Award "for her luminous and unforgettable screen performances".[4] Predictably, Garbo did not show up at the ceremony, and the statuette was mailed to her home address.[233]
Garbo twice received theNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress: forAnna Karenina in 1935, and forCamille in 1936. She won theNational Board of Review Best Acting Award forCamille in 1936; forNinotchka in 1939; and forTwo-Faced Woman in 1941. The Swedish royal medalLitteris et Artibus, which is awarded to people who have made important contributions to culture (especially music, dramatic art, or literature) was presented to Garbo in January 1937.[235] In a 1950Daily Variety opinion poll, Garbo was voted "Best Actress of the Half Century",[236] In 1957, she was awarded The George Eastman Award, given byGeorge Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.[237]
^For example, inLove (1927), a title card reads, "I like to be alone"; inThe Single Standard (1929), her character says: "I am walking alone because Iwant to be alone"; in the same film, she sails to the South Seas with her lover on a boat called the All Alone; inSusan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931), she says to a suitor: "This time, I rise ... and fall ... alone"; inInspiration (1931), she tells a fickle lover: "I just want to be alone for a little while"; inMata Hari (1931), she says to her new amour: "I never look ahead. By next spring, I shall probably be ... quite alone." By the early 1930s, the motif had become indelibly linked to Garbo's public and private personae.[127][128] It is lampooned inNinotchka (1939) when emissaries from Russia ask her: "Do you want to be alone, comrade?" "No", she says bluntly. But about her private life, she later remarked: "I never said, 'I want to be alone'; I only said, 'I want to belet alone.' There is a world of difference."[127][128]
^D'Amico, Silvio (1962).Enciclopedia dello spettacolo (in Italian). Rome: Casa editrice Le Maschere. p. 901.Archived from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved25 July 2010.
^"Greta Garbo".Lektyr (in Swedish).9 (3). 17 January 1931.
^Liberty. Liberty Library Corporation. 1974. pp. 27–31 & 54–57. Retrieved4 August 2010.[dead link]
^Biery 1928a. I hated school. I hated the bonds they put on me. There were so many things outside. I liked history best, but I was afraid of the map—geography you call it. But I had to go to school like other children. The public school, just as you have in this country.
^Biery 1928a. I didn't play much. Except skating and skiing and throwing snowballs. I did most of my playing by thinking. I played a little with my brother and sister, pretending we were in shows. Like other children. But usually, I did my own pretending. I was up and down. Very happy one moment, the next moment – there was nothing left for me.
^abBiery 1928a. Then I found a theater. I must have been six or seven. Two theaters, really. One was a cabaret; one a regular theater, – across from one another. And there was a back porch to both of them. A long plank on which the actors and actresses walked to get in the back door. I used to go there at seven o'clock in the evening, when they would be coming in, and wait until eight-thirty. Watch them come in; listen to them getting ready. The big back door was always open even in the coldest weather. Listen to their voices doing their parts in the productions. Smell the greasepaint! There is no smell in the world like the smell of the backyard of a theater. No smell that will mean as much to me—ever. Night after night, I sat there dreaming. Dreaming when I would be inside—getting ready.
^Robert Payne (November 1976).The Great Garbo. London: W. H. Allen. p. 22.ISBN978-0-491-01538-7.Archived from the original on 3 April 2024. Retrieved4 August 2010.In June 1919, she left school, and never returned.
^"The Torrent Review".Variety. 1 January 1926. Archived fromthe original on 7 May 2008. Retrieved20 July 2010.Greta Garbo, making her American debut as a screen star, has everything with looks, acting ability, and personality. When one is a Scandinavian and can put over a Latin characterization with sufficient power to make it most convincing, need there be any more said regarding her ability? She makes The Torrent worthwhile.
^Hall, Hadaunt (22 February 1926)."A New Swedish Actress".The New York Times.Archived from the original on 3 April 2024. Retrieved20 July 2010.In this current effort Greta Garbo, a Swedish actress, who is fairly well known in Germany, makes her screen bow to American audiences. As a result of her ability, her undeniable prepossessing appearance and her expensive taste in fur coats, she steals most of the thunder in this vehicle
^Biery 1928c. Mr. Stiller is an artist. He does not understand the American factories. He has always made his own pictures in Europe, where he is the master. In our country it is always the small studio. He does not understand the American Business. He could speak no English. So he was taken off the picture. It was given to Mr. Niblo. How I was broken to pieces, nobody knows. I was so unhappy I did not think I could go on.
^Brown, John Mason (1965).The worlds of Robert E. Sherwood: Mirror to His Times, 1896–1939. New York: Harper & Row.ISBN978-0-313-20937-6. Retrieved20 July 2010.I want to go on record as saying that Greta Garbo in The Temptress knocked me for a loop. I had seen Miss Garbo once before, in The Torrent. I had been mildly impressed by her visual effectiveness. In The Temptress, however, this effectiveness proves positively devastating. She may not be the best actress on the screen. I am powerless to formulate an opinion on her dramatic technique. But there is no room for argument as to the efficacy of her allure ... [She] qualifies herewith as the official Dream Princess of the Silent Drama Department of Life.
^Conway, Michael; McGregor, Dion; Ricci, Mark (1968).The Films of Greta Garbo. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press. p. 51.ISBN978-0-86369-552-0.Archived from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved20 July 2010.Harriette Underhill in theNew York Herald Tribune: 'This is the first time we have seen Miss Garbo and she is a delight to the eyes! We may also add that she is a magnetic woman and a finished actress. In fact, she leaves nothing to be desired. Such a profile, such grace, such poise, and most of all, such eyelashes. They swish the air at least a half-inch beyond her languid orbs. Miss Garbo is not a conventional beauty, yet she makes all other beauties seem a little obvious.'
^Zierold, Norman J. (1969).Garbo. New York: Stein and Day. p. 164.ISBN978-0-8128-1212-1. Retrieved20 July 2010.'Greta Garbo vitalizes the name part of this picture. She is the Temptress. Her tall, swaying figure moves Cleopatra-ishly from delirious Paris to the virile Argentine. Her alluring mouth and volcanic, slumbrous eyes enfire men to such passion that friendships collapse.' Dorothy Herzog,New York Mirror (1926):
^NYTimes 1936. For the first time since she achieved international eminence in the motion-picture world, Miss Garbo granted an interview to the press and received the reporters en masse in the smoking lounge while the ship was at Quarantine.
^Paris 1994, p. 249: "Garbo was technically bisexual, predominantly lesbian, and increasingly asexual ...".
^"I think it is fair to say that a same-sex relationship was her obvious choice, despite numerous affairs with men."Daum, Raymond (7 May 1995)."The Private Garbo".The New York Times.Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved9 October 2012.
^Brooks, Louise; Jaccard, Roland (1976).Louise Brooks: Portrait d'une anti star [Louise Brooks: Portrait of an Anti-star] (in French). Paris: Phébus.ISBN978-2-85940-012-5.
^De Acosta, atheosophist, was interested in esotericspirituality. According to biographer Moon Laramie, her relationship with de Acosta prompted Garbo's interest in both theosophy and the occult."Spirit of Garbo". Laramie, Moon (2018). Spirit of Garbo. London: Martin Firrell Company Ltd.ISBN978-1-912622-02-3, pp. 129–132.
^Ohlsen, Becky (2004).Stockholm. Melbourne: Lonely Planet. p. 86.ISBN978-1-74104-172-9.Archived from the original on 3 April 2024. Retrieved24 July 2010.The Unesco World Heritage-listed graveyard Skogskyrkogården ... is also known as the final resting place of Hollywood actress Greta Garbo
^The Film Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide to Film and the Film IndustryKatz, Ephraim (1979).The Film Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide to Film and the Film Industry (1st ed.). New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co. p. 465.ISBN978-0-690-01204-0.
^Davis, Bette (1990) [1962].The Lonely Life. New York: Berkley Books. p. 116.ISBN978-0-425-12350-8.
^Long, Robert Emmet (2001).George Cukor: Interviews. Conversations with Filmmakers. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 47.ISBN978-1-57806-387-1.
^Peck, Gregory, "Los Angeles Times", November 2000
^Larry King Live: Interview with Kim Novak, January 5, 2004
^"1929–30 Academy Awards Winners and History".Archived from the original on 29 August 2016. Retrieved23 July 2010.For the first and only time in Academy history, multiple nominations were permitted for individual categories (notice that George Arliss defeated himself in the Best Actor category). [With a change of rules, this would be the last year in which performers could be nominated for roles in more than one film.]
^"People, Jan. 11, 1937".Time. 11 January 1937. Archived fromthe original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved24 July 2010.In Council of State King Gustaf of Sweden decorated Cinemactress Greta Garbo with the nation's gold medal litteris et artibus, highest Swedish award for artistic achievement.
^ab"Greta Garbo Honored".The New York Times. 3 November 1983. p. 17.Archived from the original on 31 May 2013. Retrieved25 July 2010.Greta Garbo was made a Commander of the Swedish Order of the North Star yesterday by order of King Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden. The private ceremony in the New York home of Mrs. Jane Gunther was also attended by Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Gruson. The honor, extended only to foreigners, was presented to Miss Garbo by Count Wilhelm Wachtmeister, the Swedish Ambassador to the United States, in recognition of the actress's distinguished service to Sweden. Miss Garbo, born in Stockholm, is now an American citizen.
^"People, Jan. 11, 1937".Time. 11 January 1937. Archived fromthe original on 3 November 2011. Retrieved24 July 2010.In Council of State King Gustaf of Sweden decorated Cinemactress Greta Garbo with the nation's gold medal litteris et artibus, highest Swedish award for artistic achievement.
^"Greta Garbo Has Starring Role on U.S. Postal Stamp" (Press release). United States Postal Service. 25 June 2012. Archived fromthe original on 17 October 2005. Retrieved30 September 2008.... the U.S. Postal Service and Sweden Post jointly issued two commemorative postage stamps bearing her likeness. Both stamps, issued near what would have been her 100th birthday, are engravings based on a 1932 photograph ...
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Crafton, Donald (1999).The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926–1931. History of American Cinema. University of California Press.ISBN978-0-520-22128-4.
Gilbert, Douglas (April 1935). "James Montgomery Flagg reveals The Garbo You Never Knew".The New Movie Magazine. pp. 16, 19.
Krutzen, Michaela (1992).The Most Beautiful Woman on the Screen: The Fabrication of the Star Greta Garbo. New York: Peter Lang.ISBN3-631-42412-4.
Ricci, Stefania, ed. (2010).Greta Garbo: The Mystery of Style. Milan: Skira Editore.ISBN978-88-572-0580-9.
Robinson, David (2007). Duncan, Paul (ed.).Garbo. Köln: Taschen.ISBN978-3-8228-2209-8.
Sarris, Andrew. (1998).You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet: The American Talking Film – History and Memory, 1927–1949. Oxford University Press. New York.ISBN0-19-513426-5
Schanke, Robert A. (2003).'That Furious Lesbian': The Story of Mercedes de Acosta. Southern Illinois University Press.ISBN0-8093-2511-X.
